exterminate
/ɪkˈstɝ.mɪ.neɪt/ verb C1- To kill or otherwise permanently eliminate all of (a population, often of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally. · We'll use poison to exterminate the rats.
- To bring a definite end to; to finish completely. · The public school failed to exterminate truancy.
He/she/it exterminates · Past exterminated · Past participle exterminated · -ing form exterminating
Verb forms
- Base form
- exterminate
- He/she/it
- exterminates
- Past
- exterminated
- Past participle
- exterminated
- -ing form
- exterminating
From the library
“My dear Watson, when I have exterminated that fourth egg I shall be ready to put you in touch with the whole situation.
“Certainly; your name is popular, and does honor to the title they have adorned it with; but you are too intelligent not to know that according to a prejudice, too firmly rooted to be exterminated, a nobility which dates back five centuries is worth more than one that can only reckon twenty years.”
The former was confiding to the latter his grief and fear, for it was the second time within a month that death had suddenly and unexpectedly entered that house which was apparently destined to destruction by some exterminating angel, as an object of God’s anger.”
You say an exterminating angel appears to have devoted that house to God’s anger—well, who says your supposition is not reality?
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